


With This Ring

by my_mad_fatuation



Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7161908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_mad_fatuation/pseuds/my_mad_fatuation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rae and Finn have been friends since they could crawl, but growing up complicates things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With This Ring

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based off of this prompt: http://crystalgiddings1993.tumblr.com/post/141328096275/my-mad-fat-fanfic-crystalgiddings1993

As Rae looked down at the ring on her left hand, she couldn’t help but be reminded of her first marriage, many years ago.  
***  
_1986_  
“I now announce you husband and wife,” said Rae’s friend Izzy. “You may kiss the bride.”  
Rae wrinkled her nose and looked over at Finn who appeared just as disgusted as she felt. She held up her hand so he could kiss the back of it, since she didn’t want his boy germs on her mouth.  
Rae and Finn had known each other since Rae was born. He lived just across the road, and their parents had set up play-dates for them as babies. As they grew older, they played together everyday and became best friends.  
When Rae and Finn were six and seven years old, respectively, they decided to get married so that when they grew up they could live in the same house together and play all the time. (Their house was going to have a trampoline and a swing set and a water slide, they’d decided.)  
They exchanged rings that Rae had won from a prize machine, though they were too big for their ring fingers so they wore them on their index instead. They enlisted Izzy to perform the ceremony because she was the only one of their friends to have ever attended a wedding. The ceremony took place in the schoolyard during recess, and a handful of kids from both of their classes came out to watch.  
“Why are you wearing a ring?” asked one of Finn’s classmates who hadn’t attended the wedding. “Are you a girl?”  
“No,” Finn said matter-of-factly. “I’m married.”  
***  
_1989_  
“Come on, husband, we’re going to be late!” Rae called out from Finn’s front entryway. She looked at the plastic watch on her wrist, though she still had trouble understanding what it meant.  
She heard him hurrying down the stairs to come meet her.  
“Sorry, wife, but I almost forgot this,” he said, holding up his cassette player before putting it in his school bag. He slipped the bag over his shoulders and followed her out the door before locking up behind them.  
His dad worked, so he had to get himself ready to go to school in the mornings. He was ten years old, though; he could handle it. He and Rae walked to school together, as they had done for years.  
“Oi, Finn,” said an older kid, circling around them on his bike. “How’re things with your girlfriend?” he sneered.  
Finn tightened his hands into fists. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said, irritated.  
“I thought yous two were married,” the kid said snidely.  
“That were only a joke.” Finn looked down at the ring on his finger and fiddled with it self-consciously.  
“I don’t blame ya, mate. I wouldn’t want a fat girlfriend, either,” the kid cackled.  
“Hey! Why don’t you get off your bike and come and say that to my face?” Finn shouted at him.  
The kid just laughed and rode off.  
“Thanks for sticking up for me, husband,” Rae said quietly once the bully was gone.  
“Yeah, whatever,” said Finn.  
***  
_1993_  
Rae’s ring finally fit on her ring finger, but Finn didn’t wear his anymore. He hadn’t for some time. Rae noticed but never said anything about it. She knew it was childish, and she didn’t want him thinking of her as a child just because she was a year younger.  
She was a teen now, anyway. She had her period already. She wore a bra. She was mature.  
She was also starting to develop crushes. Mostly on celebrities, but she noticed a few local boys as well, including one who lived across the street…  
Although they still walked to school together, they ran with different circles and didn’t associate with one another once they were there. But outside of school they would go to each other’s house to hang out and listen to music in their bedrooms—with the doors open, of course.  
(It was a strange day the first time Rae’s mum told her to leave the door open, and she wasn’t quite sure what had brought about the change in attitude.  
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because it’s not like they were trying to get up to anything scandalous.)  
“Do you want to go see a film tomorrow or something?” Rae asked as she lay on top of her bed, staring at the ceiling.  
“Can’t,” said Finn, who was sitting on the floor.  
“Why not?”  
“I’ve got a date.”  
“A date?” A lump formed in Rae’s throat. “With who?”  
“Stacey Stringfellow,” he said.  
She sat up to make sure she was hearing him right. “You’re going on a date with Stacey Stringfellow?”  
“Yeah. You know her, right?”  
“Everyone knows her!” Stacey was the most popular girl at school. “I can’t believe you’re going on a date with her!”  
“How come?”  
“It’s just—I mean—I didn’t know you were dating people, that’s all.”  
“Yeah, well, it’s my first date and I’m kind of nervous about it,” he admitted.  
“Oh.” Instantly her defensive attitude switched to a reassuring one. “You’ll be fine, I know it.”  
“But what if I say something stupid? Or what if she wants me to kiss her? How do you know if a girl wants you to kiss her?”  
“I…don’t know.”  
“What would you do,” he said, turning to look at her and resting his arms on the edge of the bed, “if you wanted a boy to kiss you?”  
(Well, if she knew that, she’d be doing it right now.)  
“Um, I’d probably kill myself, because that’s disgusting,” she finally said with a laugh.  
He smiled. “I forget that you’re still a kid sometimes.”  
She forced a smile back but it felt like her insides were dying.  
***  
The date with Stacey had gone well. Finn didn’t kiss her, but there was never really the opportunity, so he figured that was a clear enough sign that he shouldn’t try. She’d agreed to see him again, though.  
In fact, she invited herself over to his house, offering to help him with his algebra homework, which he struggled with.  
“You really don’t have to,” he’d told her.  
“Don’t be silly. I’m your _girlfriend_. I don’t mind helping you.”  
She walked home from school with him, and he asked her if she preferred that they work at the kitchen table or on the sofa.  
“Where do you usually do your homework?” she asked.  
“Uh, my room, but—"  
“Then that’s where we’ll do it. You need to form good study habits.”  
He followed her up the stairs nervously, though had to lead her to his room since she’d never been there before.  
“Nice room,” she said as walked around it, taking in everything on the walls. She stopped at his desk and picked up a book before setting it back down.  
“Thanks.”  
She sat down on his bed and smiled at him like she was waiting for him to do something, but he had no idea what. She patted the spot on the bed next to her, so he went over and sat down, wiping his hands on his trousers.  
She continued to glance around the room, stopping at the bedside table. “What’s this?” she asked, picking up a small toy ring.  
“Oh, that’s, um…That’s my wedding ring,” he said with an embarrassed smile.  
“Your what?” she laughed.  
“Me and my friend Rae pretended to get married when we were young.”  
“Ray as in Raymond?”  
“Rae as in Rachel. You know, Rachel Earl? She’s a year below.”  
“Oh, yeah, I might have seen her around…”  
“Yeah, well, we exchanged those rings as kids.”  
“And you kept yours?” she asked judgmentally.  
“…Can we get to the algebra, or what?”  
***  
Rae was angry with Finn for ditching her after school the previous day, so she walked there in the morning without him again to show him how it felt. She couldn’t believe he had the nerve to tell her he was walking home with Stacey Stringfellow, and at the last minute, no less!  
Ugh. Speak of the devil.  
Stacey, who had never shown the slightest indication that she knew Rae existed, came up to her in the corridor at school with her posse.  
“You’re Rae, right?” she said, looking Rae up and down.  
“Yeah…”  
“You’re friends with Finn?”  
“Sort of…”  
She gave Rae a condescending smile. “I really like your ring, by the way.”  
Rae looked down at her left hand before tucking it under her right arm.  
“You know, Finn keeps his on his nightstand. Isn’t that cute?” Stacey started laughing and her friends joined her.  
Rae’s nostrils flared. She didn’t want to know what Stacey was doing in Finn’s bedroom.  
“Well, it’s been nice to meet you, Rae. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Stacey and her friends pushed past Rae, each of them bumping her on their way.  
She could hear them giggling as they walked away, along with the faint sound of, “Can you believe…” and, “She’s no competition!”  
***  
“Rae!” Rae’s mum called out to her. “Telephone!”  
Rae came downstairs to get the phone in the kitchen, since she wasn’t allowed to have an extension in her room yet, as much as she begged for one. (“Not until you’re older,” her mum would say.)  
“Hello?” she said as she picked up the receiver.  
“Hey, wife, how’s it going? Where were you after school today?” said Finn on the other end of the line.  
“I felt like being by myself,” she replied, twisting the phone cord around her finger.  
“Oh. Well come over now. My dad’s working late so we can crank up the volume as loud as we want.”  
“I’m surprised Stacey’s not over there in your room right now.”  
“What?”  
“You know she came and made fun of me about our rings, right?”  
“No, I didn’t.”  
“She said she saw yours on your nightstand.”  
“Okay. So?”  
“So what was she doing in your room?” Rae said loudly.  
“What does that matter?”  
She quickly felt embarrassed for saying anything. “It—It doesn’t. It’s just… She’s not a very nice person, Finn.”  
He was silent for a while.  
“Finn?”  
“Are you jealous?” he finally said.  
“Why would I be jealous?”  
“Because I’m hanging out with someone other than you for a change?”  
“Oh, get over yourself! I’m just trying to look out for you!”  
“We’re not really married! You don’t need to be in all of my business!”  
“Yeah, but I thought we were friends!”  
“We are. And as my friend, you should just be happy for me that I have a girlfriend, yeah?”  
“But she’s horrible and—“  
“Grow up, Rae! We don’t have to like the same things all the time. I can hang out with people you don’t like, and you can hang out with people I don’t like. Now, are you coming over or not?”  
“Not.”  
“Fine.”  
“Fine.”  
***  
_1996_  
“Are you ready, Mrs. Nelson?” Finn asked with his hands over Rae’s eyes.  
“Yes! And I told you not to call me that!” she huffed. “If I ever really do get married, I’m not changing my name.”  
“Not even for me?”  
“Especially not for you.”  
“Okay, okay, you can look now,” he said, uncovering her eyes.  
She looked around his room for a second before she spotted it. “It’s the record-player from downstairs,” she said as more of a question than a statement.  
“Yeah, my dad gave it to me along with a bunch of his old albums, so now we can listen to some quality tunes in here.”  
“Oh. Cool.”  
“You don’t seem excited.”  
“No, it’s great. I just thought…”  
“Thought what?”  
“I thought maybe you’d have a present for me; it’s our ten-year wedding anniversary, after all,” she said, twisting the ring on her pinky finger.  
His hand went to the ring hanging on a chain around his neck. “Oh yeah,” he laughed. “Sorry. I guess it’s sort of a present for you, though. I mean, you can come over whenever and use it.” He put his arms around her waist from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Just check before you come over to make sure I haven’t got a girl in here or something.”  
“Don’t I always?”  
***  
Finn and Rae had hit a bit of a rough patch back when he was still dating Stacey, but after they broke up, his and Rae’s friendship bounced back stronger than ever. They were still best friends, no matter what, which helped Rae cope with his subsequent girlfriends, especially when she realized they were more jealous of her than she was of them.  
They still walked to school together every day, only now he tended not to walk back with her as much, since he was usually busy with whomever he was seeing at the time. She was fine with it—she had her own friends as well.  
“Rae, who was that guy I saw you talking to after college today?” asked Izzy as she, Rae, and their friend Chloe sat around the floor of Chloe’s bedroom, like they did most afternoons.  
“You mean Liam?” said Rae. “He’s just a guy I know.”  
She wanted to tell them that she knew him from her group therapy sessions, but it was a confidential group and she wasn’t supposed to identify other members. Liam went to her school, though, and they had a lot in common. They were both big and spoke their minds and had messed up brains.  
She also wanted to tell them that he had kissed her the other day, but she’d been told to keep that a secret as well.  
***  
This was the third time that Finn had spotted Rae talking to that guy after school. One time he even saw them leave together. He was worried about Rae spending time with some guy he didn’t know very well.  
He quickly caught up with her once the guy had walked away, assuring himself the whole time that he was just concerned about Rae’s wellbeing. He wasn’t _jealous_.  
“Mrs. Nelson,” he said with a smile, slowing down as he approached her.  
She looked annoyed at him but smiled reluctantly. “Yes, husband?”  
“I was just wondering what you were doing tonight.”  
“Probably going to Chloe’s. Why?”  
“Oh, just curious. By the way, who was that you were talking to just now?”  
“That was Liam.”  
“Is he a friend of yours?”  
“I guess…”  
“How do you know him?”  
“From around school. What’s it to you?”  
“Nothing,” he said with a shrug. “You’ve just never mentioned him before.”  
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about every single person I’ve talked to today,” she replied sarcastically.  
“I just want to know you’re alright.” He nudged her with his elbow. “You’re my wife, after all.”  
“Oh yeah, I forgot that means I’m your property.”  
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”  
She gave him a tired laugh. “Look, we can hang out Saturday and you can play me some terrible songs then, yeah?”  
“Yeah, alright…”  
***  
“Oh, shit,” said Rae, sitting up quickly as she noticed the clock on the wall. She’d been lying across Finn’s bed, next to him. “It’s already after seven!”  
“So?” he asked, his eyes still closed, as he got lost in the music.  
“So, I’ve got plans at eight.”  
“What plans?”  
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m hanging out with Liam tonight.”  
“What are you hanging out with him for?”  
She sighed and decided to tell him the truth. “You can’t tell anyone, but we’ve sort of been seeing each other for a little while,” she said, fidgeting her hands. “And I think tonight we might…”  
Finn sat up quickly. “What? Are you joking?”  
“Why? Because no guy would ever want to be with me, is that it?”  
“No, just… Him? Really?”  
“Have you got a problem with him or something?”  
“No, I’m sure he’s lovely.”  
***  
“Finn! Did you punch Liam in the face?” asked Rae, outraged, when Finn answered his front door.  
“Where’d you hear that?” he said, rubbing his knuckles inconspicuously as he feigned ignorance.  
“He told me you just went up to him and punched him!”  
“He started it!”  
“He said you didn’t even say a word to each other!”  
“No, but I saw him flirting with some girl, right, and I thought he had some nerve to sleep with you and then flirt with another girl two days later and—“  
“One, I didn’t sleep with him, and two, he can talk to whoever the fuck he wants!”  
“Are you not seeing him, then?”  
“…It’s not as simple as that.”  
“Well, he seems like a right prick to me.”  
“You don’t even know him.”  
“But I don’t like him, and I don’t think you should be seeing him.”  
“What happened to ‘I can hang out with people you don’t like,’ hmm?”  
“That was stupid, because all of my girlfriends that you didn’t like turned out to be horrible, so maybe we should trust each other on this sort of thing.”  
“I can’t believe it,” she said, shaking her head.  
“Can’t believe what?”  
“You’re jealous.”  
He scoffed.  
“You’re jealous that I’m not gonna be that lovestruck kid who follows you around anymore.”  
“I don’t know what you—"  
“Don’t you? You’re always calling me ‘Mrs. Nelson’ and hugging me—"  
“I thought that was our thing! It’s only a joke, anyway…”  
“Well, I don’t think it’s funny anymore. And I don’t appreciate when you call me that at school, like you’re claiming me.”  
“What?”  
“You don’t want me, but you don’t want anyone else to have me, is that right?”  
“Rae, I didn’t mean—"  
“Maybe you should just leave me alone.”  
***  
Rae didn’t wait to walk to school with Finn the next morning. He didn’t realize this until it was five minutes after they were supposed to have left and she still hadn’t shown up. He had planned out an apology for her and everything, but she wasn’t even giving him a chance.  
He needed to talk to her privately, but every time he saw her in the corridors or outside, she was talking to people. At the end of the day, he saw her with Izzy and Chloe, and figured he had to just go up and ask her to speak with him, but he stopped once he was close enough to see her left hand.  
He squinted for a moment to make sure he was seeing things correctly. She wasn’t wearing her ring! It was the first time he’d seen her without her ring in the last ten years.  
There was a while a few years back when he didn’t wear his ring because he thought it was juvenile—and it didn’t fit anymore—but when he asked why she still wore hers she said it was because it represented their friendship and how it would last forever, stronger than any real marriage.  
Since then he wore it on a ball chain around his neck, not so much for his own sake—he didn’t need some token to remind him of their friendship—but because it seemed to matter to her. And now she wasn’t even wearing hers!  
That was it, then. Sixteen years down the drain.  
He grasped the hanging ring firmly and yanked the chain off his neck, breaking the clasp in the process. He let it fall to the floor with a clang, and the girls turned to look in his direction.  
He exchanged glances with Rae before silently marching off. He didn’t notice her pick up the ring and place it in her pocket, though.  
***  
Rae tucked the box she was carrying under one arm and knocked on the door. Finn’s dad answered, letting her know that Finn was up in his room.  
When she got up there, he had his headphones on, so he didn’t notice her right away. She startled him by turning the record-player off.  
“I thought you might want these,” she said, holding out the box.  
“What?” he said as he removed his headphones.  
“I said, I thought you might want these.”  
He gave her a confused look before taking the box from her. It was full of some of his belongings: a few CDs, a t-shirt, a book that he’d forgotten about.  
“And this,” she added before pulling his ring out of her pocket.  
“I thought I threw that away,” he said gruffly.  
“If you want to get rid of it, fine, go ahead. It’s yours.”  
“Did you get rid of yours?”  
She sighed. “Of course I didn’t, I just… I can’t wear it anymore. I don’t see the point.”  
“You were the one who said they represented our ‘everlasting friendship’ or whatever—"  
“Yeah, well, maybe you can’t be friends with someone forever! Maybe you just drift apart.”  
***  
_1997_  
Finn watched out the window as a car pulled up outside Rae’s house. He knew it was her friend Chloe here to pick her up, and he knew where they were going tonight. The same place he was going.  
It was his friend Chop’s birthday party, and since Chop was dating Rae’s friend Izzy, both Finn and Rae would be in attendance. It would be the first time they were at a party together since their “divorce.” They generally tried to avoid social situations that would put them together, but Chop’s party was going to be a major event that neither of them could miss.  
He continued watching as Rae got into the car with her sleeping bag—Chop insisted on hosting what he called a “sexy party,” whatever that meant.  
Finn was getting a ride with his now best friend, Archie, who arrived shortly after the girls left. They got to the party before the girls, however; Finn suspected they’d stopped to get Izzy as well.  
***  
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” said Rae as she and her friends approached Chop’s front door. “Maybe I should just go home. You guys go ahead, I’ll go—“  
“Babes,” said Chloe, looking her friend sternly in the eye. “You can do this. You see him at school and around your neighbourhood all the time. This is no different. Just pretend he doesn’t exist.”  
Though it was difficult for Rae to pretend Finn didn’t exist when he was standing right in her eye-line as she walked in. She quickly looked away, but it was hard to make it seem natural.  
***  
Finn noticed Rae at the party, but it seemed like she was avoiding him on purpose—the way she usually did. It wasn’t until they were sat across from each other for a round of Spin the Bottle that their eyes met, briefly.  
After a couple of rounds of “normal” Spin the Bottle, where Finn kissed some girl he didn’t really know very well, Chop introduced a variation where each pair would go into the cupboard for a minute.  
The bottle landed on Rae, and Finn felt his stomach twist with nerves. Part of him was worried the bottle would land on him next, and he’d have to face the painful awkwardness of standing in the cupboard with her, and part of him was worried that it would land on some other bloke who would get to go in there with her instead…  
When it ultimately landed on Archie, however, Finn was a bit relieved. He knew they wouldn’t get up to very much.  
***  
Rae giggled a little as she and Archie squeezed into the cupboard together. “So, you gonna put the moves on me, there, Archibald?” she teased.  
“Oh, you bet,” he replied with a chuckle, putting his hands on her shoulders. “But seriously, what is up with you?”  
“What d’you mean?”  
“It’s been months since you and Finn split up—"  
“Saying we ‘split up’ makes it sound like we were together.”  
“Well, you were, sort of. You went from doing everything together to not even talking to each other all of a sudden.”  
“It wasn’t that sudden. It had been building for a while. We’re just not good as friends anymore.”  
“That’s ridiculous! You share the same interests, you share the same background; you grew up together, for Christ’s sake!”  
“We don’t share all the same interests… Some of his music is shit, for example.”  
“And that’s worth ending a friendship over?”  
“I just couldn’t do it anymore, Archie. I couldn’t keep being there for him when he wasn’t there for me—not in the way I wanted, anyway.”  
“Well, did you tell him what you wanted?”  
She laughed derisively. “Of course not! I’m not about to put myself out there just to get shut down!”  
“Yeah, but what’s the worst that would happen? You wouldn’t be friends anymore? Because you’re not friends now…”  
“…Don’t use logic on me.”  
***  
Hadn’t it been a minute already? Finn knew he had nothing to worry about with Rae going into the cupboard with Archie, really, but still, why wasn’t their minute over yet?  
When it was finally over, he watched as the two of them emerged, laughing together. He had to remind himself that it was fine because Archie was gay. _But why should that matter?_ he thought. She wasn’t his girlfriend; she could make out with whomever she wanted.  
When the bottle landed on her again after several turns, Finn excused himself to go to the toilet.  
***  
“Have you been hiding up here this whole time?” asked Archie when he found Finn sitting alone upstairs in Chop’s room. The room was off-limits from the party, partly so that Chop wouldn’t have to clean it, and partly so that it would be empty for him and Izzy later that night. But Finn figured he wouldn’t mind one lonely soul drinking in there for a little while.  
“I’m just not really in the mood for a party right now,” said Finn.  
Archie took a seat next to him on the bed. “Then what are you still doing here?”  
“You’re my ride, remember?”  
“Yeah, but you could’ve asked me to take you back.”  
“I didn’t want to trouble ya.”  
“Well, you know I’d do anything for you, mate, but I think you should give this party another chance.”  
“Why’s that?”  
“Someone’s been looking for you.”  
Finn frowned at him curiously. “Who?”  
“I’ll just tell her you’re in here, shall I?”  
“Tell who, Arch?” Finn asked as his friend got up to leave. But Archie was out the door without responding.  
***  
Rae knocked hesitantly on the door. When Archie had told her that Finn was in Chop’s room, she’d taken her time to go up, trying not to seem too eager.  
Finn opened the door several seconds later, looking surprised to see her. “Rae,” he said quietly, his voice cracking like he hadn’t spoken for a while.  
“Can we talk?”  
He stepped aside to let her into the room where she sat on the bed, her hands folded together. She’d rehearsed in her head exactly what she wanted to say.  
***  
“I…should really apologize for the way I acted,” Rae began. “I shouldn’t have just cut you out like that, but it hurt too much to be around you, y’know?”  
Finn shook his head as he sat down beside her. “No, I don’t know.”  
“You’ve always protected me, like a big brother would…”  
He felt his nerves rising up, afraid of where she was going with this. She saw him like a brother?  
“But that’s not what I want from you,” she continued. “I know you just see me as a dumb kid, and maybe I am, but I need you to respect me and my choices.”  
“I do! Rae, I don’t see you as a dumb kid, okay? I respect you.”  
“Saying you respect me is not the same as actually respecting me, though. Respecting me is not punching out the guys I’m seeing. Respecting me is not taking it for granted that I’ll be around just because I’m in love with you—"  
“You—You’re what?”  
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t know.”  
“I swear, Rae, if I had known… Jesus, things probably would have been different.”  
“What are you saying?”  
“I’m saying, I think… I think I’m in love with you, too.” He could hardly believe what he’d just said. He couldn’t lift his eyes to look at her. “I mean, I think that’s why I’ve been so protective. You were right when you said I didn’t want anyone else to have you, but you were also wrong; I do want ya.”  
***  
Rae looked over at Finn, who was staring down at his hands, in disbelief over what he’d just told her. Her eyes started to burn as tears formed behind them. “Don’t lie to me, Finn. Don’t say that just so things can go back to the way they were, because we’ll never have that again. Things don’t just stay the same.”  
He finally looked at her. “I don’t want things to stay the same. Not if it means we both have to keep hiding ourselves.”  
“Then what do we do?”  
“I suppose we have two options: we become friendly—not quite friends, but not shut out completely, so that we can each live our lives without interference from the other—or we become more than friends… Which do you want?”  
It was her turn to look away. “Which do you want?”  
“I asked you first.”  
“I don’t know. I don’t want to make the wrong decision and ruin everything.”  
“But what’s there left to ruin?”  
“The memories.”  
***  
“How could anything ruin our memories?” Finn asked, a concerned expression on his face.  
Rae looked like she was trying not to cry—he could tell, after all these years. “What if we go out and then we break up and then we hate each other, and all our good memories will be tainted by our hatred.”  
“I could never hate you, Rae.”  
“You don’t know that! You can’t know that for sure.”  
“Okay, but you can’t know anything for sure. You don’t live life by only doing things you’re sure of.”  
“Is that your answer?”  
“Is what my answer?”  
“That we should go for it, even if we’re not sure?” A smile crept into the corner of her mouth.  
“Hey, did you say all that just to get me to tip my hand first?” he asked with mock indignation.  
“No, it just worked out that way.” She stuck her tongue between her teeth.  
***  
“Oi, cheeky!” said Finn as he bumped Rae’s shoulder with his.  
She looked at him, surprised by how close his head was to hers. _“What would you do if you wanted a boy to kiss you?”_ he had asked her years ago. She still didn’t know. With Liam, she never really wanted it, it just sort of happened.  
But she wanted this. She wanted Finn. And he, from what she could tell, wanted her. So what was stopping him? Her lips were right there.  
***  
Finn remembered the first time he was supposed to kiss Rae, at their wedding. She had looked so far from keen and just stuck out her hand, and he wondered if she would do the same if he tried to kiss her now.  
Only one way to find out.  
***  
Rae watched as Finn’s face approached her, first resting his forehead on hers, then brushing his nose against hers, and finally, tentatively, pressing his lips to hers.  
She kissed him back softly to show her approval, which was met with an increase in intensity.  
***  
Finn cupped Rae’s face in his hand as he kissed her, afraid she might escape if he gave her the chance. He didn’t mean to be so possessive, but he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her again.  
She didn’t seem to want to flee, though. She even made agreeable noises as he sucked gently on her lower lip.  
***  
“Oi, Nelson!”  
Rae and Finn sprang apart suddenly—apparently neither of them had heard the door open. They looked at Chop who appeared both amused and annoyed.  
“I told everyone my room was off-limits,” he said.  
“I didn’t think you’d mind if it was just me,” said Finn.  
“But it’s not jus’ you, is it?” Chop flashed a gap-toothed smile at Rae. “Hello, m’dear.”  
“Hi, Chop,” she said, blushing.  
“The party’s winding down now, anyway, so yous two might want to find another place to set up shop. I think the cupboard’s available.”  
“We weren’t gonna do anything!” Rae said as she got up to leave.  
She and Finn left the room, noticing Izzy waiting in the hallway. Rae gave her a small wave as they passed each other.  
“So,” said Finn once they were alone again. “That was a no on the cupboard?”  
***  
_1998_  
“Good evening, wife,” Finn said as he opened the door to his flat to find Rae standing there, rain-soaked. “I see that the rain caught ya, did it?”  
“Just get me a towel, would ya, husband?” She came in and took off her jacket, hanging it on the coat rack by the door.  
He came back with a large towel moments later and wrapped it around her with a hug. “How was your day?”  
“Shit.”  
“’Cause of the rain, or…?”  
“’Cause of applications for uni—they’re due soon and I don’t even know where I want to go yet or what I want to do. I’m only applying now because my mum told me I had to. ‘Just keep your options open,’ she said.”  
“Well, I have something for you that might cheer you up.” He went into his bedroom and came back out with his hands behind his back. “I know you were really upset when your ring snapped in half, so I got you this.”  
He held out a small ring box and for a second Rae thought she was having a heart attack.  
“Now, it’s still just costume jewellery,” he said, opening it in front of her. “But it’s all I can afford right now.”  
She was speechless for a moment. “…Finn, I—I don’t—"  
“This isn’t an engagement ring, by the way,” he added quickly.  
“Okay…”  
“It’s too shit for that. No, it’s a ring that means that one day—when we’re ready and I have money and you’re done school or whatever—I will buy you a proper engagement ring. It will still probably be kind of shit, because, let’s face, I’m never going to make that much money, but—“  
“I love it,” she said as she took the ring from the box and slipped it on her finger.  
“Now,” she added, toying with the ring on the ball chain around his neck, “you said something about cheering me up.”  
***  
_2002_  
“How does it feel to be done with school forever?” asked Archie at Rae’s graduation party. “I don’t know why I decided to go to graduate school, but…”  
“Because you want to be a history professor, duh,” said Rae. “And it feels great to be done, but also terrifying. What am I supposed to do with my life now?”  
“Enjoy it?”  
Finn came up to her and handed her a drink. “Here you go, wife,” he said with a grin. “Are you having a good time?”  
He had thrown her this party at his flat with all of her closest friends from home, and a couple friends from uni who could make the trip down.  
“Yeah, great, it’s just—wait, what the fuck is Chop doing with that lighter?”  
“Jesus Christ! I’ll be right back.”  
“So,” Archie said once Finn had left. “Still calling each other husband and wife?”  
She laughed a little. “It’s just one of those things, where you give someone a nickname and it just sticks, so you don’t even notice you’re doing it.”  
“Do you think you’ll keep saying it once you’re actually married, or will it have lost its charm by then?”  
“I dunno, Archie, that’s a long ways away.”  
***  
After saying goodbye to the last of his friends, Finn shut and locked the door of his flat and retired to his bedroom. Rae was already half-asleep in the bed, exhausted from having just moved back home the previous day.  
“Husband?” she asked groggily as he came in and turned on the light.  
“Sorry,” he said, shutting off the light quickly. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”  
“I was awake.” She sat up and turned on the lamp on the bedside table.  
He got into the bed next to her. “Good, because I wanted to ask you something, and I didn’t want to do it in front of everybody.”  
She yawned. “What is it?”  
“Well, it’s the sort of thing that I think we could keep putting off inevitably, but I don’t see the point in that. You’ve graduated now, but you haven’t got a job yet. Then once you get a job, it might not be the career you want. And we might have to move. And there’s a million things that could change, but we’re always going to be together, right?”  
“I suppose…”  
“If that’s the case, then there’s no reason to wait, is there?” He went into his nightstand and pulled out another small ring box.  
“Oh my god, you didn’t!” she said, snatching the box from his hands.  
“It’s the smallest diamond in the world, I think, but it’s real,” he laughed.  
“It’s lovely, really.”  
“So,” he said and cleared his throat. “Rachel Earl, will you—"  
“Of course I will, you idiot! I married ya once, I can do it again!”  
***  
_2003_  
As Rae looked down at the ring on her left hand, she couldn’t help but be reminded of her first marriage, many years ago. It was to the same boy, in the same town, and with several of the same people in attendance. Only this time it was official.  
The ceremony was brief, as neither she nor Finn wanted to stand in front of an audience for an extended period of time—and everyone prefers the reception anyway, right?  
“I first met Finn in primary school,” Archie said during his toast. “Even then he had a bit of a reputation for being good with the ladies—he was the only seven-year-old I knew with a wife! But over the years it became clearer and clearer that he was not that great with the ladies, after all.”  
Everyone laughed.  
“After a string of doomed relationships, which I won’t embarrass him with now, I finally had to sit these two in a room together and force them to admit to one another that which the rest of us had known for years: that this girl whom he had called his wife since he was a child was in fact the woman he was supposed to spend his life with.  
“You can tell by the way they are with each other, like they go together so easily. You can tell by the way they laugh at each other’s jokes, even when no one else does. You can tell by the way he looks at her like she’s the only person in the room—which can be really annoying when you’re trying to have a conversation with him.  
“Now, I’m not going to stand here and claim that their relationship is perfect; Rae still thinks Finn has shit taste in music—pardon my French. But they have the strong foundation of a twenty-three year friendship that has gotten them through tough times in the past, and will continue to get them through all that lies ahead. They have found the sort of love that all of us seek, and I wish them the very best in their adventure together.  
“And now, let’s let them humiliate themselves on the dance floor!”  
***  
“So, is that it?” Finn asked as he lay in bed with Rae after consummating their marriage.  
“What do you mean, _‘is that it’_?” she said, sounding offended.  
He laughed. “I mean, is that the last ring I have to get for you? It is your fourth, after all.”  
“Hey, technically I provided the first one.”  
“Fair enough.”  
“And no, it isn’t the last.”  
“It isn’t?”  
“I expect another on our fiftieth wedding anniversary.”  
“Okay, remind me in forty-nine years and eleven months.”  
“Oh, I will.”  
“Goodnight, Mrs. Nelson.”  
“Nope, still not changing my name, not even for you.”

* * *

Bonus Ending:

 _2053_  
Humans have destroyed the environment and are all dead.


End file.
